Indiana’s Bears Stadium Bid Gets More Real After Illinois Misses Chance

Now it’s about to become very clear just how serious the Bears stadium bid from Indiana really is. 

Despite all-night political negotiations that ran into Monday morning, and weeks of preceding deliberations, the Illinois House of Representatives adjourned without taking up a Bears stadium bill. The state Senate approved that proposal—which would allow certain Cook County towns to create stadium authorities to help support a Bears venue—around 4:40 a.m. ET on Monday.

In the House, though, the depth and complexity of that bill proved to be too much to approach in a legislative session already running into overtime.

“The bill came over from the Senate after many of us had been up for 20 hours and it is not enough time to vet a really important bill,” said Democratic state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe. “Many of us are going to scrutinize anything that is potentially a tax giveaway to the super wealthy or big corporations.”

In the dramatically reworked Senate bill, the Bears would pay for the stadium, but the host town would own it, and the team would not pay property taxes. 

“I remain optimistic. We all share the same goal: finding a solution that works for the Bears, works for taxpayers, and earns the confidence of the General Assembly,” said state Rep. Kam Buckner, a key figure on the stadium negotiations. “[Monday] morning was the end of session. It was not the end of the conversation.”

What’s Next?

The current political reality in Illinois creates a very stark timeline surrounding the NFL team’s attempt to build a $5 billion domed stadium and mixed-use development. The Bears have been clear for months they want to make a final stadium choice by the early summer at the latest, and the team currently has only one fully approved offer on the table: the proposal from Hammond, Ind., that was ratified in February and would fund about 60% of the stadium cost.

In the three-plus months since that approval, there have been some continued whispers that the Hammond bid is merely a stalking horse for an eventual deal in Illinois. That agreement in the team’s current home state, however, still hasn’t happened, meaning three potential scenarios stand out:

• The Bears could adjust their timeline and delay their site decision, primarily to give Illinois more time. That’s a tough prospect given the team has already said the cost of the project likely rises by $10 million with every month of delays. The NFL would also like the Bears to join an accelerating stadium development boom that includes the Bills, Titans, Commanders, Browns, Chiefs, and Broncos. To that end, the Bears said early Monday that its deliberations “remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated.”
• The Bears could accept the Hammond offer. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has already been increasingly confident that will happen, saying even before the latest developments in Illinois that his state had a “65-35” chance of landing the Bears.
• Illinois legislators could find a way to ratify a Bears stadium bill outside of the normal legislative calendar, which doesn’t pick up again until the fall. House Speaker Chris Welch, however, said early Monday that calling a special session to revisit the Bears issue was not planned.

“I think our caucus is used to processes,” Welch said. “Our caucus is used to taking our time and doing it right. … So we’ll get it right. We’ll get it done.”

NFL insiders, however, don’t believe there is much time left, if any, for Illinois.

“Unless there’s a meaningful change in Illinois, and quick, the team is going to Indiana,” Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports consultant who works frequently with the NFL, tells Front Office Sports. “Not only is there disappointment by what’s happened, but there’s been a loss of credibility [in Illinois]. Sports fans in Illinois have now really seen, maybe for the first time, how dysfunctional Illinois government really is. The politicians wasted five months [during the spring session] and didn’t really talk to each other.”